Nightmare in Morocco (3 page)

"The heart attack was very severe," the nurse began to explain
.
She stopped at the sight of Noa's tears
.
All Noa could think about was that sometime during the endless flight between
Algeciras
and New York, Mike had died without ever seeing her again.

Through the veil of grief, Noa suddenly thought of Cathy
.
"Is Mike's daughter here?"

"She took a cab home about half an hour ago
.
Just after Mike
passed on."
Feeling the numbness of shock, Noa began to move away
.
She could barely feel the nurse's arm, once again upon her shoulder, gently guiding her to a nearby room
.
"Wait here," she said
.
"Mike left something for you."

Several people waited in the small room
.
They kept turning pages of magazines as if they did not notice her sobbing
.
It wasn't fair that she would never see Mike again!
It wasn't fair that her brother had died so young!
Even separated by an ocean, they had always depended on one another
.
Mike was the last of her family
.
Now she had no one left in the world!

The nurse handed her a folded paper, saying, "He made me promise to give this directly to you and not to the girl
.
He dictated the words, and I wrote them down for you shortly after he was admitted
.
It was as if he knew..."

Noa sat for a while, the unread note in her hands
.
Only yesterday Noa had left Taber and Morocco, a promise of joy
.
Now her world had crumbled
.
How could things change with such cruel rapidity?

Some time later Noa unfolded the paper and read Mike's words, written in the nurse's dainty, unfamiliar handwriting
.
"Make me a promise, Noa
.
I know you never break your word!
Promise me you will take Cathy with you back to Spain
.
She has fallen in with bad company
.
She is dating the devil himself!
You must get her away from his influence!
Do this for me, Noa
.
I love her very much
.
She has just turned seventeen
.
I know a year will make a lot of difference
.
I love you and know I can count on you to watch her for me
.
Mike.

Noa, eyes, blurred by her flood of tears and by hours of sleeplessness, read and reread the note
.
She was only five years older than Cathy
.
How could she fulfill such a mission?
Or from what she knew about Cathy, how could anyone?

* * *

Noa gave the taxi driver the address on Oak Terrace and watched the streets grow hilly, narrow, more residential
.
Rain had begun, thin, mist like, dampening her face and hair
.
She paid the driver and walked toward the white, impersonal condominium that Mike had shared with Cathy.

She passed a series of doors that all looked alike until she found one marked Mike Parker
.
"It's open!"
The voice that acknowledged her knock could barely be heard above the clamor of hard rock music
.

Noa opened the door
.
Cathy sat drinking a bottle of pop
.
Her head, topped with a careless mass of brown hair, had carried even as a child, a definite set to it
.
The defiance had extended itself, showed in the slow way she continued with her drinking, in the way her eyes remained locked on Noa over the tilted bottle
.

Noa set her suitcase near the stereo and turned down the volume
.
"I've just come from the hospital."

The girl had fresh, clear skin and large eyes of an indefinite color, now appearing a pale, watery brown flecked with yellow
.
They stared at her without any emotion
.
Mike had built his entire life around her
.
Didn't she even care?

Noa's throat began aching with resentment she must not allow to show
.
"I can't believe it," she said, and sank down into a chair.

Quietness surrounded them
.
Noa had totally forgotten Cathy's presence in the depths of her grief
.
The girl's voice called her back.

"Mike told me I was to go back to Spain with you."
She held the bottle a minute, then tipped it to her lips again. "What if I don't want to?"

What if I don't want you to?
The angry thoughts that had formed in Noa's mind did not pass her lips
.
In the silence she felt an open dislike for Cathy
.
At last, a little ashamed of the hostility she felt for the girl, she said, "We'll talk about it in the morning."

"Good
.
I've got a date tonight." "You surely aren't going out tonight?
Mike's just...I must insist that you stay home tonight
.
Your date will have to wait."

Noa had expected Cathy to challenge her, but the strange, yellowish eyes remained indifferent
.

"Who were you going out with?"

Cathy spoke slowly, affectedly. "Mike always minded his own business
.
Why don't you?"

Noa, trying to ignore her last remark, asked, "Don't you call him father?"

"He wasn't my father."

No use trying to talk to her
.
Noa felt too much on edge even to attempt it
.
She must not let the pressure and pain she felt get them off to a bad start
.
Noa tried to drive the impatience
from her voice
.
"The flight over was terrible
.
I've got such a headache, I'm going to have to rest
.
Where should I sleep?"

Cathy shrugged
.
"You can sleep in Mike's bed
.
Or the sofa."
Noa found a blanket in the closet and stretched out on the couch
.
Her body, stiff and cramped from the endlessly long hours in flight, found no position of comfort
.
She forced her
self to
lay
still, an arm across her face to block the glare of overhead light.

Noa closed her eyes, wishing she could shut out reality
.
She was grateful that Cathy made no attempt to talk to her.

Despite the bright lights and the music, which Cathy had turned up once again, Noa must have dozed.

When she awoke, Cathy was gone.

Chapter Two

Music blared
.
The singer's voice could barely b
e distinguished
above brass and drumbeat
.
Cathy had not bothered to decrease the volume, nor had she stopped to switch off the glaring bulbs on the overheard chandelier.

Fitful sleep had added a great physical heaviness
.
Noa forced herself to rise, to check one huge, whitewashed room after another
.
The sight of Mike's empty bed made her want to cry; so did Cathy's.

Emotions struggled for control and surfaced as outrage
.
How could Cathy do this to her?
Angrily, Noa switched off the stereo
.
Thick silence settled around her and made her aware of the totally impossible task of trying to find Cathy in New York City.

But it was only ten thirty
.
Surely the girl had just stepped out momentarily!

The shrill, ringing phone startled her
.
That must be Cathy now
.
Relieved, she lifted the receiver.

"Noa?"

She recognized at once her boss's deep, steady voice
.
"I got your message on my answering service
.
How is Mike?"

"Wendell, he's gone!"
Her voice was broken with sobs
.
"I didn't even get to see him!"

Wendell hesitated, then in a manner marked by deep sincerity, he said, "Noa, I'm so sorry
.
I was afraid of that the minute I heard
.
In fact, I intended to catch a flight out at once."

Noa held her breath, hoping she had misinterpreted the past tense.

"But I can't leave now
.
I just got out of the hospital
.
The doctor gives me a definite no."

"I didn't know you were in the hospital
.
What's wrong?"

"A little spell with my heart
.
That's why I didn't meet you in Tangier
.
Nothing to worry about, though
.
A person expects a little trouble at my age, but Mike...he was just a young man
.
I can't believe it!
I'd give anything to be with you now!"

Noa imagined Wendell Carlson's dignified, but weathered face, creased with deep laugh lines
.
She could see his brown hair, threaded now with gray, limply falling over his forehead, and his eyes, which appeared often to laugh at the world, clouded with intense emotion
.
Noa tried to drive the disappointment from her voice
.
"I'll be fine
.
You just take care of yourself."

"What are your plans?"

"I'll lease the condominium and bring Cathy back with me."

"Good
.
I'm counting on you to start my Moroccan tour!"

After she hung up, she continued to think about him, how good he had always been to her, how much his call
had comforted
her
.
Wendell Carlson and her father had been as close as brothers
.
If Cathy didn't object, she would give him Dad's gold watch, the one that Mike always carried
.

When Cathy hadn't appeared by three A.M., Noa began to wonder if she should call the police
.
She paced around and ended up in the hall corridor with the brilliant lights, which exaggerated what was white and empty.

Cathy's voice startled her, "Are you looking for me?"

Where had she come from?
Certainly not from the outside entrance. "Where have you been?"

Without a word, Cathy bypassed her into the front
room. "I asked you where you've been."

"Out," Cathy replied with an infuriating air of
mock innocence
, as if she had no idea what Noa was talking about
.
The girl wore jeans and a sloppy sweatshirt, but her eyes were carefully made up
.
Dark mascara made the yellowish flecks stand out, seeming to Noa to emphasize the surly defiance.

"I was worried about you."

"Look, I don't like you and you don't like me," Cathy responded angrily
.
"So don't pretend to be worried about me
.
I'm not your problem."

She hurried off into the kitchen, snapping on lights
.
"That's where you're wrong
.
I'm your legal guardian until you turn of age
.
That's twelve months from now."

Acting as if she didn't hear her, Cathy took a package of candy bars from the cupboard and began unwrapping one.

"You probably haven't even eaten supper
.
That's not good for you."
As Noa spoke, she found a cup and reached for the coffee beneath the drip coffee maker.

"Neither is coffee," the girl retorted
.

"We might just as well get along."
Noa said, trying to sound matter of fact
.
"You're going to have to come back with me to Spain."

Cathy munched the candy bar, eyes regarding Noa with cool, impassive dislike
.
The surly look had spread downward to the pouting lips
.
"I'm not leaving New York City."

"This apartment will have to be leased
.
You won't have any place to stay."